1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for extracting heat from a device and, in particular, to a cold plate and methods of using and fabricating the cold plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the designs of equipment in general, and electronic equipment in particular, have evolved over the years, the amount of heat produced by such equipment has increased. For example, some of today's microprocessors operate at speeds that are orders of magnitude greater than their predecessors of a decade ago. Modern equipment also bundles multiple microprocessors, along with higher output power supplies and other devices, to provide ever-increasing levels of computing power. Along with the increase in computing power generally comes an increase in the amount of heat produced by the equipment and other related devices. This problem also arises with other types of electronics and electronic equipment.
Generally, excessive heat may be detrimental to the operation of such equipment. Excessive temperatures may physically damage some equipment components. In computing equipment, excessive heat may cause the equipment to provide erroneous results or may cause the equipment to fail altogether. Therefore, it is desirable in many situations to remove heat from such equipment.
Fans have been traditionally used to reduce the operating temperature of equipment. Generally, heat is removed from the equipment's components by forcing air over the components. Heat is transferred from the components to the air and the air is expelled from the equipment, often into the surrounding atmosphere. While inexpensive, this method of cooling may be inefficient from a heat transfer perspective and, thus, may not be able to remove an acceptable amount of heat from the equipment.
Other types of heat exchangers have been used to remove heat from equipment. For example, one or more cold plates may be attached directly to the equipment. Generally, cold plates operate by transferring heat from the equipment to which they are attached to a cooling fluid circulating through the cold plate or by removing heat from the equipment through the use of a thermoelectric device. Conventional cold plates typically are made of high thermal conductivity metals, such as copper or aluminum, and may be heavier than desirable in some weight-sensitive applications. Further, conventional cold plates are generally not used as part of equipment structure or to support equipment, as they are not designed to have significant structural strength for such applications.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing, the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above.